Kobe getting guided again after private plea to bring Phil Jackson back

Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson are heading their 10th and likely final season together with the Lakers. JAE C. HONG, AP

EL SEGUNDO – To know Kobe Bryant is to know that he changes all the time – his footwork, his messages, his moods – yet doesn't change at all.

When he says he really does want to keep winning and winning and winning, believe it. He's not normal when it comes to this stuff.

He's a geek about basketball, but he's a freak about winning.

Two things since he won one for the thumb last June 18 speak to this, one shortly thereafter and one just the other day:

Bryant did head off soon after the Lakers' championship parade, having his exit meeting with Mitch Kupchak and Phil Jackson and then one last gathering with reporters before going on holiday in South Africa for the FIFA World Cup.

He was there to enjoy the soccer and the atmosphere – "a dream of mine since I was a kid," Bryant said of attending the World Cup – while also building his brand and Nike's.

But Bryant didn't leave his real work behind. He doesn't have to read Dr. Seuss to his daughters to realize that he could not, would not, rest on his laurels. He had something in the back of his mind, something directly tied to what's next.

So Bryant eventually put in one extra phone call to Jackson, who had left Los Angeles to hunker down in his Montana home and remember how a personality test had once taken his love for the outdoors and recommended a career as a trail guide. Jackson was back there to read the cherry tree leaves for direction on his future as a basketball coach.

"It was just to let him know that I want him back," Bryant said. "It was important as he's making his decision that he knows much I want him back, how much we all want him back – and how much I've learned from him."

Bryant likes being in control, and with that comes some cunning at recognizing and exercising control. He can read situations much the way he will proactively read the court. He certainly couldn't control Jackson's decision in this case, but Bryant was determined to control as much as he could and make that extra call.

"He was still up in the air a little bit," Bryant said of Jackson, who had left L.A. with the parting shot that he was "leaning toward retiring."

"I just wanted to reach out to him and let him know," Bryant said. "I mean, we've had such a long relationship. It was the right thing to do."

Jackson probably decides to make this last stand without Bryant's last call, which brought a big smile to the coach's face more than any new information into his head. The call, however, speaks to Bryant's philosophy that it's never a repeat, three-peat or now a six-pack:

It's always simply the next one.

Despite making clear to Jackson in the call that he'd respect and even support a decision not to return, Bryant managed to convey how meaningful a decision to return would be to him – to the point that Jackson reciprocated privately with an e-mail to Bryant well in advance of announcing it.

Upon receiving that e-mail, Bryant retreated into non-basketball mode himself for a time. He will decompress, but he won't desist. There was work to be done long before training camp started: Bryant commuted up from Newport Coast to the Lakers' El Segundo facility for his regular knee rehabilitation with Judy Seto and consistent weight training with Chip Schaefer, all done before the average office worker even sits down at his desk in the morning.

It was with that diligence that Bryant's knee rallied ahead of schedule to the point that he could play in the team's exhibition openers in London and Barcelona. After only a short run in London, it was in Barcelona on Thursday night that we saw the latest example of who Bryant still is.

Teammate Pau Gasol went into his homecoming game in Spain basically seeing it as a lose-lose situation: Either the not-nearly-the-Lakers-yet Lakers still take care of business against an in-season Regal FC Barcelona team and everyone shrugs and nods, or everyone shakes their heads at these Euroleaguers knocking the Lakers off their pedestal.

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